Life is Strange: Double Exposure review: Max Caulfield triumphantly returns

digitaltrends.com:

Life is Strange: Double Exposure MSRP $50.00 Score Details Pros

• Emotional, relatable story
• Excellent performances
• Gorgeous visuals
• Maintains the series' distinct charm

• Unambitious gameplay
• Unsatisfying aspects of the ending

Sometimes, a video game can feel like it was made just for you. Even though that’s obviously not the case with Life is Strange: Double Exposure, which is part of a well-known franchise and spent years in development, I still can’t help but feel like that way.

• Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection comes to Nintendo Switch next month
• Life Is Strange: True Colors allows players to manipulate emotions and auras
• Tomb Raider, Life is Strange will headline Square Enix’s first digital showcase

As an anxious high schooler, I played the originalLife is Strange and identified a lot with Max Caulfield’s journey then. Now, I’m playing this very self-reflective follow-up set on a campus as I’m returning to college myself to get a Master’s Degree and thinking about where my life has gone since my undergrad days.

I was worried another Life is Strange game starring Max Caulfield would feel like an unnecessary retread of worn ground. Instead, it’s a warm blanket that reminds me of why I fell in love with the series in the first place. Double Exposure’s gameplay isn’t anything special, but Max’s emotional journey is something I can deeply relate to and affirms that developer Deck Nine understands why the original resonated with people like myself a decade ago.

Max is back

Life is Strange: Double Exposure takes place around a decade after the events of the first Life is Strange. That game ended with players making a choice; they either had to kill Chloe to stop Arcadia Bay from being destroyed by a storm or let Chloe live at the cost of that town. A decade after the fact, Max is still living with the consequences of whichever choice she’s picked after spending lots of time on the road. She’s now a teacher at the prestigious Caledon